therefore, it is many centuries since Solomon discovered that all was humbug, it is only in these modern times it has assumed the form of a system, so that there is now in most people a positive inclination to be humbugged.' This disposition forms the ground-work of the speeches of statesmen, and of the advertisement of all patent inventions; it regulates alike the phraseology of science and the forms of good breeding; it presides in courts of justice, counsels in the chamber of the invalid, and sometimes dogmatizes in the pulpit. But we must come to the Catechism itself, and proceed to the exposition of our theme in catechetical form, a mode of teaching, happily, going out of fashion, and except in this instance, a very barbarous method of teaching young or old. Our readers will, we trust, believe that the following are veritable extracts, and that no deception is intended; if they should suspect otherwise, we would remind them that for the uninitiated it is just as well for them to listen to nonsense, which they cannot, as to truth, which they do not comprehend. Another anti thesis be it observed, and at the close of a sentence too. The ars, not cacoethes, scribendi. 'What is humbug? It may be defined to be that propensity of the human mind which inclines us to convey to others, by our words or our actions, an impression concerning ourselves or other objects, which our conscience or our judgment does not sanction as correct. 'How is it distinguished from falsehood or deceit ? 'Some species of it are scarcely distinguishable; and such may be considered as forming the connecting link between these two propensities; but in general humbug does not operate by the same means as falsehood. To what is humbug generally opposed? 'To sincerity, as direct falsehood is to truth. How is it divided? 'Into active and passive; or in other words, a propensity to humbug others, and a propensity to be humbugged ourselves. 'How are the objects of these propensities respectively termed? The object of the active propensity is called a humbugger; and of the passive, a humbuggee; but the former is more commonly termed a sharp, and the latter a flat. What are those persons called who have neither intellect enough to be sharps, nor imagination enough to be flats? 'Naturals. 'How many are the simple modes of active humbug? They may be reduced to four; the first two it possesses in common with direct falsehood; the last two are proper to itself. 'Name them. 'Pretending, dissembling, rigmaroling, and cajoling.' Then follow definitions of these terms, expressed with mathematical correctness and logical precision, and the 'fragment of the great work' begins to reveal itself in sundry chapters, extracts from which we are now about to make; and first: : Of Pretending. 'How does pretence differ from that species of falsehood called simulation or suggestio falsi? It is more comprehensive; as though it often does employ falsehood, it frequently makes use of truth, and most commonly of a mixture of both together. 'What are the principal species of it? 'Pretence to knowledge, pretence to feelings, and pretence in external circum stances. 'Why has pretence to knowledge become necessary for upholding our characters in society? 'Because every man is expected to know, or at least to profess to know, every branch of knowledge; admitted ignorance upon any subject is justly considered as disgraceful; and as few have leisure or abilities for universal study, pretence to knowledge becomes necessary. 'Whence has arisen this thirst for universal knowledge? 'It is not so much the knowledge, as the reputation for it, that is coveted; and that desire has in a great measure been fostered, like most other propensities, by the facilities which exist for gratifying it. Is, then, pretence to knowledge laudable? Unquestionably. Happiness is the great object of society, and whatever raises a man in the opinion of others, and consequently in his own, ministers to his vanity and self-esteem, and, therefore, to his happiness. Is no injury inflicted on society by lowering the standard of truth? None. The error was in imposing any standard value upon it at all. The value is not necessarily lowered, but simply removed, and truth is left to find its own level. Has truth then no intrinsic value? None. Like every other commodity, its value must depend upon the market; it is worth just what it will bring; and it was only raised to an unnatural value by the prohibition upon falsehood. 'Is, then, the employment of truth or falsehood a matter of indifference? "Quite so to those who understand their proper use; and on such as have any remaining prejudices in favour of the supposed intrinsic value of truth it can be successfully urged that, just as a credit circulation is preferable to a metallic currency, it is a foolish waste of capital where humbug passes as current as banknotes, and direct falsehood is discounted on liberal terms, to persevere in the employment of so costly a medium as truth in our dealings with society, when we might better treasure it up as a curiosity which may some day or other find admirers, or export it to America, where, by all accounts, the market is not overstocked.' Section second opens with a similarly sharp fusillade on pretence to feeling; reminding us of the familiar lines in which the same thought is expressed without any pretence. 'Sweet is a legacy; and passing sweet The unexpected death of some old lady, Or gentleman of seventy years complete, Who've made us youth" wait too, too long already Our 'unbeknown' but respected author puts the thing more plainly, though less poetically than this, as the following passages will prove; though, as we quote, we are afraid our readers will fancy we are 'making it all up out of our head;' if they do, let them inquire at 'all the booksellers' for this Catechism, and they will be disappointed : 'Mention some instances of pretence to feeling? 'Affectation of grief, as in deep mourning and long faces worn at the funeral of a rich relation; or of satisfaction, as in the warm congratulations we offer to a successful rival whom in our hearts we are wishing at Jericho; affectation of zeal, which abounds in the addresses of lawyers to a jury, and the speeches of party leaders of the House of Commons to their constituents; or of moderation, as in a starving nobleman who has unexpectedly succeeded to fifty thousand a-year, and wishes to appear most fashionably careless of his change of circumstances; affectation of regard, which is uniformly employed in refusing a favour to a friend; or of indifference towards an object we would give the world to obtain, but which is placed beyond our reach. 'You have not mentioned affectation of piety? 'There is less to be got by this than by most other kinds of pretence; there is, however, some share of it in what is called inconsistently the religious world. 'What is fashion, or pretence in external circumstances? ** 'A certain supreme station in society, assumed by, and conceded to, a small number of individuals who exercise the sole power of admission to their privileged class. 'What are the advantages enjoyed by persons of fashion?* The liberty of saying and doing what they please, with the certainty of being admired and imitated by the vulgar; astonishing the natives, as it is called; and the advantage of unlimited credit upon all tradesmen whom they honour with their patronage. 'Does fashion depend upon rank? 'No. Upon a conformity with certain conventional habits and notions, in themselves trifling or irrational; an unruffled indifference to the opinions and affairs of all the world, except the exclusive set; and a sufficient degree of nonchalance to set up such qualifications, as pretensions to pre-eminence.' Our readers will, we fear, become weary of this catechetical process of our unknown or slightly-guessed-at author; we will therefore hasten towards a conclusion. To many, also, this calm dissection of society, regardless of the sufferings of those who are under the knife, may possibly appear too surgically heartless; still we confess to great satisfaction in seeing this same society thus turned inside out, and its foibles or humbugs made 'patent,' to use the stock term, to all observers; and trust that those who are thus anatomized will survive the operation. A few more brief quotations will be all we shall inflict on our readers. The following we cannot help, as members of the fourth estate, strongly condemning. No one who reads our literature, especially but we forbear-can hesitate in pronouncing the following either a calumny, or what is as bad, a piece of presumptuous ignorance. Not content with saying that the principal helps to * This is an evident plagiarism from Southey, and is too bad in one writing on pretence. There are, however,' says Southey, three tribes in England, not named in the Old Testament, who considerably outnumber all the rest. These are the High Vulgarites, who are the children of Rahank and Pashan; the Middle Vulgarites, who are the children of Mammon and Terade; and the Low Vulgarites, who are the children of Tahag, Rahag, Bohobtayul.' * pretence to knowledge are 'reviews, magazines, lectures, and publications for diffusing general knowledge;' sayings unjust as well as severe, and quite sufficient to induce the author to buy up his own production, and 'hide his diminished head;' there occurs the following atrocious passage, that might possibly apply to the 'British Slanderer,' or the Earthy Vessel,' but by remotest implication can have no connexion with the honest portions of our literature. 'How is literary rigmarole principally employed? 'In book-making in general, to swell the size, and consequently the price of the book. It constitutes nearly the sole element in prospectuses and literary puffs of new books, or new editions of old ones, and abounds much in reviews, magazines, and other works of criticism.' Under the head of Cajoling there occurs the following paragraph, which is specially suitable to our present financial position as a nation. It just occurs to us that possibly D'Israeli himself wrote this book. It would be worth while to ascertain this: some honourable member, " on his legs,' might ask the question; we don't say it would be polite, Parliamentary, or Palmerstonian; but that is nothing; now-a-days we can do anything. How is cajoling employed in financial schemes? Principally in the framing of a document called the "Budget," which is a statement of the revenue and expenditure of the nation. 'Ought not this to be clear and intelligible to everyone who is obliged to pay taxes? By no means. Government cannot go on without taxes; and as they must be paid, it is the duty of the minister of finance to make them appear as reasonable and necessary as possible; the budget ought, therefore, to consist of very perplexed statements and very detailed accounts, avoiding round numbers, in order to display extreme accuracy; for as arithmetic is at best but a dry study, most persons will be willing to believe that an account containing so many figuies must be satisfactory, especially if they see halfpence in the total. 'But surely this account cannot blind the people against the continuance of oppressive taxes? No! and for that reason it is proper for the minister, as a popular measure, to remove or diminish some of the public burdens, which, however, is put on in another shape, and gives the same relief as a coach-horse experiences by being changed from one side of the pole to the other.' As many a true word is spoken in joke, so beneath this pleasant disguise of satire, not sarcasm, are many true words and true thoughts which are worthy of notice. We never vend, much less puff, our own wares, otherwise we would strongly recommend this article to the attention of all whom it may concern; and if our readers can procure a copy of the book, from which these extracts are said to be taken, they will do themselves no harm by its attentive perusal. Christian Spectators see too much humbug not to be increasingly jealous for the government of truth-everywhere-at all times-and under all cir cumstances. M. G. B. * This was written before we had any existence.-P. D. Moderu Congregational Literature; its Lights and Shadows.* 6 6 WE are painfully reminded, by the appearance of the interesting volumes before us, of the heavy loss the world of letters has sustained by the heliacal setting of the bright particular star,' whose short but brilliant orbit is here so lovingly yet truthfully described by a father's hand. Dissenting literature in particular-oh! how we hate the necessity which compels us to tack on a sectarian epithet to so catholic a word-can ill spare so doughty a representative of its scanty, and it would even seem, dwindling ranks. For if we would rightly appreciate the true worth and significance of the name of VAUGHAN, father and son, in the roll of the Congregational authorship of our time, we must not shrink from the startling reflection how short the list is, and how alarming is its tendency year by year to contract, rather than, as we should expect in these days of University education, to swell into more respectable proportions. We trust we have a wholesome dread of the curse of Canaan, and we assuredly feel no malignant pleasure in exposing a parent's shame to the world's cold scorn and derision. We would gladly hide the nakedness of the · Congregational Literary Register,' which is annually paraded in the 'Year Book,' and until we have something better to show in this department, would in all good faith most earnestly counsel the suppression of what we cannot refrain from calling such a beggarly account of empty boxes.' There we have blurted out the unlucky phrase, which we had been honestly striving to keep back. We are in for it, and are fairly bound, we admit, to say something in its justification, but we should lay ourselves open to the charge of having gratuitously libelled our own beloved denomination. That our remarks may be the less invidious, we will say nothing about the latest issues of the Year Book.' It is no great cruelty to the writers when we assume that nine-tenths, and perhaps a fraction of the remaining tithe, of the productions chronicled two years ago are now hopelessly forgotten by the public. We know we have to deal with a genus irritabile in everything we say about authors, and that those belonging to the Dissenting press are by no means an exception to the rule. But we are greatly mistaken in the men, if all but the most morbidly thinskinned amongst them would not in general terms assent to the above statement. It is so with all literature. Far fewer books than infants survive a second year. The loving parents may nurse and coddle them, but they die notwithstanding. Not that the evil eye of reviewers is fatal to many of them. Our craft the wicked world says is far more indulgent to many a rickety bantling than is meet. But somehow or other the starveling and thin little things don't thrive, and the awful * Essays and Remains of the Rev. R. A. Vaughan. Edited, with a Memoir, by the Rev. R. Vaughan, D.D. In 2 vols. London: J. W. Parker & Son. |